Forum rules
Please keep the width of embedded images (using [img] [/img] tags) in this forum to no more than 800 pixels wide (this will avoid them being clipped without notice by most users' window sizes). Attached images can be any resolution so long as the file size is no more than 1 MB (attachments will be displayed by the forums as thumbnails no larger than 800 pixels linked to the full-size image).

Please include a description of the pictures' content so that readers know what they're all about.

For topics focussed on narrative rather than the photos, please consider posting in one of the 'Trip Report' forums instead.

The scrub would grow back in short measure. Buttongrass might need some help. The Scotts Peak airstrip was ripped and seeded in 1998, I can't find it on google earth (it's likely I haven't found it rather than it can't be seen, I can't recall the exact location..) but iv'e heard others are well recovered. The soil down in the catchment would be more fertile. A green army with seedbags would help.

Draining massive areas under water has been done for a long time now. Go to the Mississippi delta, or in the Everglades, you'll see what man is capable of draining... it's usually done for settlement and industry of course, not for conservation or rehabilitation...

Ha, I'd assumed there was an older bush 'airstrip' as well as that 'landing ground'. I don't recall seeing water at the first site. Looking at the western end, however, maybe we did come back to the same site and park and work on different ends of the same strip. That does look re-planted, perhaps also the road in to it rehabilitated?

Hmm, still a way to go there . I'd imagine little more than solid rock or gravel though, maybe some peat brought up with the tynes in places.

What would happen Tibboh, if the plug was pulled, would be entirely natural. The same existing (albeit drowned) contours of the ground would give us a body of water of the same shape as the original Lake Pedder .

That is where the similarity would end. The trouble is , we would'nt be happy with what happens naturally, even though, by all accounts, what happens to re-grow is what is best suited to the conditions.

The arrow of time has ticked on. There is no reversing the arrow of time. The best we could do is manufacture a cardboard cutout of the visual appearance. There is no regaining the experience of being lucky enough to visit the original.

Edit - An analogy - The favourite Aunt dies, and instead of grieving ,reflecting, learning, gaining wisdom - it is proposed to dig her up, dress her, put a bit of lippy on her , prop her in the corner and pretend she didn't die.

You are, in effect, saying that remediation and rehabilitation work at disused minesites is pointless. That once something is damaged we should not make any attempt at fixing it. That we should not try to limit the numbers of feral animals and plants or their affect on the environment. That we should not try to re-seed areas with species that once lived there but were driven out by the results of our actions.And there are people who call me a pessimist . . .

What would happen Tibboh, if the plug was pulled, would be entirely natural. The same existing (albeit drowned) contours of the ground would give us a body of water of the same shape as the original Lake Pedder .

That is where the similarity would end. The trouble is , we would'nt be happy with what happens naturally, even though, by all accounts, what happens to re-grow is what is best suited to the conditions.

The arrow of time has ticked on. There is no reversing the arrow of time. The best we could do is manufacture a cardboard cutout of the visual appearance. There is no regaining the experience of being lucky enough to visit the original.

Edit - An analogy - The favourite Aunt dies, and instead of grieving ,reflecting, learning, gaining wisdom - it is proposed to dig her up, dress her, put a bit of lippy on her , prop her in the corner and pretend she didn't die.

You are, in effect, saying that remediation and rehabilitation work at disused minesites is pointless. That once something is damaged we should not make any attempt at fixing it. That we should not try to limit the numbers of feral animals and plants or their affect on the environment. That we should not try to re-seed areas with species that once lived there but were driven out by the results of our actions.And there are people who call me a pessimist . . .

Well, I don't really think any of that. I also don't think in terms of damage in this case, because that implies there is a way things should be.I think there is only the way things were, the way things are, the way individuals or groups of people wish things to be, and how people feel about it all.I'm increasingly questioning of should/should not statements. (And hard to answer satisfactorily, I find).

Here's some early photos of Lake Pedder that I found on Flickr in this album "Tasmania in the 1950's" created by Janette Asche's of her Fathers slides. https://www.flickr.com/photos/7272097@N ... 111020813/Just in case the link breaks in future, I have added some to this thread.

Found another collection of Lake Pedder area Kodachrome slides from 1969-1971 that are a wonderful record of not only the lake but views from the Franklands and various approaches to the lake. https://www.flickr.com/photos/garratt3/ ... 08848640/#To quote from the notes to this collection -"There are two trips to Lake Pedder featured in this Set.Firstly, in December, 1969, a party from the Kamerukan Bushwalking Club stayed overnight at the Lake, en route to a traverse of the Western and Eastern Arthurs. Other Sets featuring these slides and those of the Arthur Ranges are now complete.Secondly, in December, 1970, small party of bushwalking friends made a flying visit to Lake Pedder in December, 1970, and the images from that trip make up the majority of those in this Set.By the summer of 1972, it would be inundated by the Huon Serpentine impoundment. Consequenty, many of the locations from where these photos were taken are now completely submerged.All shots were taken on Kodachome II (25 ISO) with a Pentax Spotmatic and scanned with a Nikon Coolscan 500ED 35mm film scanner.. Some of these transparencies were difficult to scan, because, fashionably, they were (under)exposed at 32 ISO, which in the 60s and 70s made for rich colours suitable for the slide projector."

Here are some samples from the collection.

Last edited by tas-man on Thu 04 Sep, 2014 10:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

My name is Diana Reynolds and I am producing a small illustrated book about growing up in Tassie in the 1960s. As lake Pedder and all the issues thereof were just around the corner in the early 70's I would like to include a page about it. Could I use the photo by Tasman as reference? Also further down, there is a photo of a bust of Truganini by Pedro. Does anyone know anything about it? Is it still there or was it flooded? Did it get put back there???

My name is Diana Reynolds and I am producing a small illustrated book about growing up in Tassie in the 1960s. As lake Pedder and all the issues thereof were just around the corner in the early 70's I would like to include a page about it. Could I use the photo by Tasman as reference? Also further down, there is a photo of a bust of Truganini by Pedro. Does anyone know anything about it? Is it still there or was it flooded? Did it get put back there???

RENOWNED WILDERNESS MAN, LES SOUTHWELL, DIES AGED 88.Les Southwell, a towering figure of last century wilderness travel and photography in Tasmania and Victoria, has been found dead in the Victorian alps. He had been separated from companions and was sitting outside his tent near snowy Mt Bogong when he died, aged 88."Les Southwell, a Melbourne engineer, was one of the most remarkable wilderness walkers in Tasmania in the high age of wild country adventure last century. He first came to Tasmania in the early 1960s and, via the original Lake Pedder, walked to Federation Peak, the most remote mountain in Australia. Consequently, in scores more trips, he bushbashed into other remote places including Pokana Cirque, Lake Curley, the Denison Range and Gordon Splits," former Greens leader Bob Brown said in Hobart today. "Les was a vigorous advocate for saving the Franklin and Gordon rivers from damming.""Les Southwell's 1983 book 'The Mountains of Paradise: the Wilderness of South-west Tasmania' is a classic of Australian wilderness photography. His depictions of Lake Pedder National Park are now national treasures. Until the end, Les was a crusty advocate for restoring Lake Pedder," Bob Brown said.Victorian environmentalist Karen Alexander OA said that "Les had a very long dedication to conservation, from the Lake Pedder campaign to Fraser Island, the subject of his first book, and the Franklin. He saw the value of photography to convey the good message about wild places, like Peter Dombrovskis and Olegas Truchanas who also died in the wild. Les kept the campaign for Tasmania's South-west wilderness alive in Melbourne after the loss of Lake Pedder, paving the way for saving the Franklin. As a civil engineer, Les had argued strongly for alternative solutions to the flooding of Lake Pedder.""Half a century ago Les observed that for Tasmanian politicians 'the idea of the wilderness experience seemed incomprehensible and they often seemed hostile to the very notion'. Nowadays wilderness is arguably Tasmania's greatest tourism drawcard, thanks to advocates like Les Southwell," Bob Brown said.The Wilderness Society paid tribute to Les, describing him one of the vanguard in Australian wilderness photography. "Images of Lake Pedder and other spectacular wild places still stand as technical masterpieces and continue to serve as inspiration to both photographers and wilderness campaigners alike," said Society spokesperson Vica Bayley.

One can only wonder, but what would The Jewel of The Southwest look like today IF it was still intact? Currently it lies submerged in another world, dormant and untroubled by squabbles and arguments, opinions and others opinions.

In the current developers eyes what would be on the table, drawing board, constructed?

I only ever walked in and looking at that photo with the beach saturated with a mix of planes and people glad my experience wasn't one of those. Some are upset about the intrusion of modern contrivances into our special and precious wilderness areas and yet that photo above couldn't be a more stark reminder of contemporary views and aspirations for, towards our remote and rugged wilderness, where the sheer beauty and tranquility are at the very heart of what draws us to such locations.

Reflecting back, for me there's some comfort knowing it's still there and what has it been spared of in light of modern development rights that seem to dominate the landscape and deep pockets that speak for a few today.

Wow! it's ten years since I started this thread, and I have enjoyed, and continue to enjoy, the contributions of fellow forum members who have shared their memories and photos of the original Lake Pedder. To celebrate (now I know how) here's a direct link to Arnold Rowland's Super 8 footage I linked in that first message -

My comments about the film on the Youtube page were -

This super 8 silent movie from March 1971 was filmed by bushwalker and conservationist Arnold Rowlands on his last flight into Lake Pedder before it was flooded by the damming of the Gordon, Serpentine, and Huon Rivers. I have digitised a video copy and added a soundtrack and titles, and wish to share my tribute to Lake Pedder with you. I walked into Lake Pedder in 1971 and this very special place lives on in my memory. May it inspire you too as it did many Tasmanians, who fought hard for its preservation, and although unsuccessful, laid the foundation for the world's first Green Political Party. May it live again one day!

No, that link is to a different documentary about the flooding of Lake Pedder. I think that this forum may use Flash Player to play embedded YouTube video content which can be a problem on some Mac OS's as I have also experienced. The direct link it you want to try it is https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... 0qoYQ_AzPU

Last edited by tas-man on Sun 29 Apr, 2018 11:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.